An 'envelope, please' moment for books
Quills Awards stir debate on hype
Book people love the big annual prizes: the Pulitzer, the PEN/Faulkner, the National Book Critics Circle, and the National Book Award. They create excitement and pump up sales for the winners. This year, there's a new award on the scene, the Quills Awards, complete with a glittery televised ceremony hosted by NBC anchorman Brian Williams.
But not everybody is cheering. A grousing minority thinks the Quills are nothing but a marketing gimmick by a nervous book industry.
''I think the Quills are smoke and mirrors, glitz and glamour, with nothing redeeming about it, other than promoting books that are already being promoted," said Martin Shepard, co-publisher of the Permanent Press of Sag Harbor, N.Y.
''These are awards for books that are selling well," he said. ''If awards were based on commercial success,
What gets Shepard's goat is that the nomination system for the Quills, unlike the other big competitions, is tilted in favor of bestsellers or books that retailers like. Poor-selling or little-known books, no matter how good, have little chance, just like books from tiny houses like Permanent, which typically have small press runs. Also, winners are elected from the nominee list by consumers, anyone who cares to vote, which also tends to favor books with buzz or hot sales.
''The word that comes to my mind is meretricious," said Carlin Romano, book critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer and former president of the National Book Critics Circle. ''Apparently the 'American Idol' notion is being used, with the same literary effect. It won't mean much, except as show biz."
But worried publishers, and the Quills organizers, say that show biz is just what publishing needs. Book sales have been in the dumps for several years, and with newspaper review space dropping, publishers are desperate to get public attention.
The Quills appear after a year in which the National Book Award, funded largely by the publishing industry, drew sneers and grumbles for nominating five poor-selling novels by relatively unknown writers.
The Quills idea is that if consumers participate in naming the best books and get to see the winners announced on national television, they'll have a heightened interest in books.
For years, publishing has envied the publicity bonanza of the Academy Awards, which gets the whole country thinking and arguing about movies, whether the best ones win or not.
As with the Oscars, the winners of the Quills get a trophy but no money. ''It's an opportunity to create something over time that would potentially make a big difference to books, literacy, and reading," said Gerry Byrne, chairman of the Quills Literacy Foundation.
Byrne said that the Oct. 11 awards ceremony in New York, with promised appearances by Jon Stewart, Al Roker, and other celebrities, could serve ''to put books on the same plane that movies and television are on." NBC Universal, a Quills cosponsor, will showcase the black-tie gala, which will benefit the Quills foundation, in a prime-time one-hour special Oct. 22. The foundation intends to support programs to promote reading and literacy.
''I think it's a great attempt to popularize the book business, and boy, do we need it," said Jane Friedman, president and chief executive officer of HarperCollins. ''It's a good thing, as we try to expand our readers, to put the public into this. I think it's important to have the consumer not only buy the book, but confirm that this is the best book of the year."
The awards were dreamed up by Byrne at the request of Reed Business Information, a US division of Dutch-British publishing giant Reed Elsevier Group, whose numerous magazines include Publishers Weekly, Variety, and Interior Design, as well as Harcourt, the book publisher. (Byrne is former publisher of Variety.) Reed is providing most of the funding for the competition, and PW carried a three-page spread promoting the Quills in the Aug. 15 issue.
There's no question that book awards pump up sales. Lily Tuck's novel ''The News From Paraguay," one of the ''obscure" finalists for last year's National Book Award, had sold fewer than 10,000 copies before it won. Since then, it has sold more than 100,000.
But such award-driven hits are too few and far between for publishers' liking. Worse, from their point of view, the judging panels of the big awards are unpredictable in their tastes and choices.
That's where the Quills come in. The FAQ page on the website describes the award as ''a prestigious well-branded consumer selection of a title that adds marketing value to the title and author."
''The difference between this award and any other is that it's a reader's choice," Byrne said. ''People holler about other awards because they are committee-selected. This is not committee-selected. There are purists in literary circles who have a different sense of what is going on here, but we think anything you can do to get people reading is a good thing."
Borders, Barnes & Noble, BookSense.com (the independent booksellers group), NBC, and Publishers Weekly have banner ads on the Quills website, though the retailers are not putting up any money directly to support the awards. However, Borders and Barnes & Noble have prominent Quills-nominee displays in stores.
''What appealed to us -- aside from the fact that the more media exposure you get, the better -- is that it involves the consumer," said Antoinette Ercolano, vice president of Barnes & Noble. ''With other book awards, the choices are made by committees removed from the public. But this is more like the People's Choice Awards."
But, as Shepard said, the people are choosing largely from the booksellers' favorites, books that are already selling well, which gives some critics pause.
''We're all in support of reading and whatever can help it," said Sven Birkerts, editor of Agni magazine, a literary journal published at Boston University, but ''it's an oddly defined criteria of literary quality that's being created here. The gating, sifting process is being taken out of the hands of the usual designated experts and redistributed to people with financial connections to the book business."
The Quills criteria appear to leave little chance for a slow-selling book by an unknown writer. While it's possible that such a book, if it had a starred Publishers Weekly review, might become a nominee, it's hard to see how a book with weak sales and little buzz could attract enough consumer votes to win.
The traditional judging system might seem removed from the public to booksellers and big publishers, but it has defenders. For one, it's a way for a fine long-shot to come out of the pack and win.
''Look at Ha Jin," said Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the National Book Foundation, which gives the National Book Award. ''He came out of nowhere and won the National Book Award for fiction [in 1999] for 'Waiting.' Then he won the PEN/Faulkner. A lot of people noticed him after he won the awards."
To be sure, there's no groundswell of opposition to the Quills Awards, and authors generally seem supportive. ''It's potentially a good thing, if it succeeds in getting the public's attention on books and reading," said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. ''We would hope some of the benefit would spill over to lesser-known titles."
''It sounds like a wonderful idea," said novelist Mary McGarry Morris of Andover. ''I can't see any negatives. Books like 'Waiting' will always find their place, and the National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner won't go away."
Others agree with Byrne and Friedman that anything that gives more attention to books and reading should be welcome.
''There were snobs and cynics when Oprah Winfrey had her book club, yet Oprah did more for American literature than Edmund Wilson or Alfred Kazin," said Alan Cheuse, book reviewer for National Public Radio. ''What's the worst that can happen, that someone in a trailer with her hair in curlers will be lying in bed reading a romance novel? But if her kids are watching her do that, they'll develop the habit of reading books.
''That would be terrific."
David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com. 